World Water Day: You Can Make a Difference

CHICAGO, IL (March 22, 2012) – Did you know that more people today own a cell phone than have access to clean water?

And did you know that 3.6 million people will die this year from an unclean water-related disease – that’s equal to the entire population of the city of Los Angeles!

Covenant World Relief and the Evangelical Covenant Church join millions of others around the world today in observing World Water Day, a time for renewed commitments to provide the most basic of human necessities – clean water – to every woman, man and child in every part of the world.

“Water for life in the household and water for livelihoods through production are two of the foundations for human development,” notes the most recent United Nations report on human development. “Yet for a large section of humanity, these foundations are not in place.”

The report goes on to note that in an increasingly prosperous world, more than one billion people lack clean water and 2.6 billion people lack access to adequate sanitation. As a result, each year some 1.8 million children die from diarrhea and other diseases caused by unclean water and poor sanitation. Unclean water is the second biggest killer of children.

The Evangelical Covenant Church is working to make certain that people around the world have clean water and sanitation. One way for interested individuals to join in this effort is by making an online donation today – in honor of World Water Day – through Covenant Cares for clean water.

Covenant World Relief has a proven track record in its work to provide clean water and sanitation to several places around the world where CWR is engaged – here are a few examples of that involvement:

  • Central Asia – In many small villages in Central Asia, there is no access to clean water. One of the leading causes of death for children under five is diarrhea from water-borne illnesses. With a partner organization from this community, Covenant World Relief is partnering to build six wells in different communities in order to provide access to clean water. Click here to learn more.
  • East Asia – This project is a second phase to an earlier project on water catchment in this same village. After the very successful rainwater catchment project, the people from the community asked CWR to continue partnering with them on improving their community. The next phase will focus on providing potable water through water pasteurization with solar cookers, gutters for cleaner water catchment, and seminars on environmental and health risks associated with coal burning. Click here to learn more.
  • Ethiopia Water – The project in Tute Kunche involves drilling a well and pumping water to a storage/distribution tank. The storage tank will be located on a high point in the community so that gravity will distribute the water to six public water points. Each public water point will have six taps. Every day, a tap attendant will open each water point for a couple hours in the morning and a couple hours at night. Cost breakdown: $45,180 to drill a depp well of more than 400 feet, $5,640 to construct six water points, $6,100 to construct a 7,500-gallon water storage tank. Click here to learn more.
  • Kenya – In Kitengela, the Kenyan Covenant Church is creating a water well to provide water to the community. With this borehole, the church will be able to not only provide a much-needed resource, but the church will also gain income that will support their education program for Congolese refugees. Click here to learn more.

Join the Covenant Cares family today and show the rest of the world that you care too!

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Comments

  • I returned from Tanzania three weeks ago. The Mennonite Central Committee has been funding sand dams. These dams have been used for the past 50 years in Asia, South America, and Africa. These dams utilize rivers and streams that are normally dry much of the year. During the rainy season the dams fill up with sand which retains the water. Using hand pumps allows the local villagers to obtain water filtered naturally by the sand. For additional details refer to this URL.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sand_dam

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